Persons not in the labour force consists of those who are marginally attached to the labour force, and those who are not. Persons who are marginally attached to the labour force satisfy some, but not all, of the criteria used to classify a person as unemployed.

Persons not in the labour force are considered to be marginally attached to the labour force if they:

wanted to work and were actively looking for work (but, unlike unemployed people, were not available to start work in the reference week); or

wanted to work and were not actively looking for work but were available to start work within four weeks.

Persons not in the labour force are not marginally attached to the labour force if they:

did not want to work; or

wanted to work but were not actively looking for work and were not available to start work within four weeks.

The following diagram presents estimates from the September 2013 PNILF Survey.